Wednesday, November 5

Google search box predictive text

The Google search box on the Firefox browser has predictive text - not sure how much of that is remembering what I've searched for before, as opposed to the current default (appears to be google world rather than UK only, but I suspect there is some UK weighting), but I thought I'd note what some letters bring. Some will stay the same for years, others show that this is updated fairly often (and will hopefully change very soon now)

So you have the internet royalty (Amazon, Ebay, Google) the new internet royalty (facebook), the US powerhouses (is craigslist even in the UK?)

a: Amazon - internet royalty, unsurprising. The second place of Argos makes me think there must be a UK weighting to these results, though.
b: Bebo - I've vaguely heard of this, perhaps its for a younger audience
c: craigslist - American powerhouse, I think
d: dictionary - one of the few English words to win
e: ebay - internet royalty
f: facebook - new internet royalty
g: google - figures
h: hotmail- clearly not dead yet
i: imdb - not exactly internet royalty, but clearly doing well to beat itunes
j: john mccain (mccain doesn't even appear on the m list)
k: kelly blue book - I've no idea what this is. Or indeed many of the other entries that appear under 'k'
l: limewire - as above, no idea
m: myspace - the tawdy network site, unreadable to anyone my age
n: next - the retail chain or the English word I wonder?
o: obama - Mr President-elect - no surprise there (Barack Obama is sixth in the bs)
p: photobucket - photo hosting. 'Palin' hit ninth, which I suspect is not largely due to fans of the dead parrot sketch
q: quotes - a small field, and won by a non-trademark.
r: runescape - I suspect it's a game.
s: sarah palin. Oh please let this be temporary.
t: target. I think this is a retailer.
u: utube. Are there really that many people who don't know it's "youtube"?
v: verizon wireless
w: wikipedia. Internet royalty, despite the flakiness of some of its entries
x: x factor. Make it go away, please.
y: youtube. For those who can remember the spelling.
z: zipcodes. See, I said it was American.

The US dominance of google searches is clear - of the big hits, only one that I'm aware of started outside US territory (imdb - technically the bit of Panama that john mccain was born on was US territory or he wouldn't have been able to stand for president)

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